This was a simple and easy art lesson for The Legend of the Persian Carpet by Tomie dePaola. The kids liked it and it can be done easily with all ages down to kindergarten.

For materials you will need:

• Colorful card stock or sturdy paper. You can also use construction paper if it’s what you have.
• Paper cutter to cut strips 1/4 ‘ thick. You can use scissors but it takes longer. You must cut them longer than the cardboard base.
• Scissors and stapler
• Cardboard. Use the size and weight you want. I used full corrugated cardboard but any will do. Cut to desired size.
• Paper tape

With a ruler draw line on the top of the paper to leave attached. Then going the other direction, draw lines to that point each about 1/4 to 1/3 inch think. You can make the strips larger for younger children and smaller for older. Paper weaving is a lot of fun, it’s easy and it’s a good skill for kids to have early on. I also like adding variety of mediums and textures. So for this project I offered ribbons and different textured paper strips to add variety for weaving.

Cut your lines to make strips for weaving. Go only to the top line, that makes it easier to keep together. And to make that even easier we glued behind the uncut portion and attached it to the same size cardboard. In some cases I stapled it to the top of the board. This allowed the kids to have a worry free top piece to add to. It eliminated a bunch of frustration with weaves coming undone while working. This way, it was fail proof.

Continue to weave until the project is complete. You can ad interest with multi media such as ribbons and even yarn.

Secure strips by weaving tightly. Push them up as needed until no more can fit. Finally, you can use  colorful craft paper tape as a finished border but also to secure and finish off the edges. You can also staple the corners if you think it needs it.

My students did a lovely job and enjoyed the project. I gave the several different strips in both solid and patterned paper. So it added even more design and interest. They idea was for them to be very colorful like the Persian carpet and I think that was accomplished!

Art Around the Ancient World- the line up:

The following lists each lesson by civilization, what each lesson’s focus will be, and the media/project tutorial.

• Prehistory– Cave Paintings– Painting the Ancient Way
• Sumerians – Ancient Writing -Cylinder Seals in Clay
• Egyptians – Egyptian Art – Text as Texture/ Egyptian Headdress
• Assyrians and Babylonians -Near East Metalworking –  Babylonian Art Lesson for Kids
• Phoenicians– Ancient Dyes– Purple Batik Cloths
• Hittites and Ancient Israel– TBA
• Ancient Africa– Akuaba Wooden Doll– African Scratch Art
• Minoan and Mycenaean-Greek Mythology Masks-MinotaurPaper Mache Masks
• Persians– Persian Carpets and Decor- Paper Weaving Project – ( YOU ARE HERE)
• Ancient China- Geometry– Tangrams
• Ancient Greece– Pythagorus – Tessellating Jars
• India- Spice Jar Layer Art
• Rome- Mosaics

The post Art Lesson for Legend of the Persian Carpet appeared first on Dymphna's Song.

Ancient Egypt Art Lesson #1

This project is a multi-media project that can go with any lesson on Ancient Egypt. For this lesson you will need:

• multi-media paper
• pencil
• tracing paper
• newsprint, ads and/or patterned printed papers
• scissors
• tempera paint in yellow, red, blue and white
• glue
• black permanent marker
• additional tempera or acrylic paints in various colors
• markers or watercolors or both
• gold acrylic paint for adding details

Ancient Egypt Text as Texture Faces Tutorial

1. Look at Egyptian art and faces.

Any book will do for this because there are so very many to choose from. Or perhaps check out an art book on Egyptian Art in the resource section of your library. If you don’t feel confident demonstrating the drawing of a face to your child I can recommend Ralph Masiello’s Ancient Egypt Drawing Book (Ralph Masiello’s Drawing Books) to guide them. If you happen to have the  Draw and Write Through History (Creation through Jonah, Volume 1) you may be able to use just the section on Egypt and enlarge the head portion. But if you’re choosing one, the first is definitely the best for this.

2. Draw an Egyptian face.

I demonstrated both a front and side view for my students. One thing that is often hard for kids is to use the entire piece of paper. So try to remind them the size needs to fill the whole page.

Another good place to start is that eyes are located in the middle of the head. Have them lightly draw a line across the mid point of the face from the top of the head to the chin. This is where the eyes go.  The next hardest thing to draw is the nose.

3. Trace the headpiece and cut it out of the newsprint.

Using tracing paper, have your child trace the headdress part of their Egyptian drawing. Cut the pattern out. Next, lay the tracing paper over the news print and cut that pattern out of the newsprint. Make adjustments if needed. This was the hardest part for my class of 3rd to 5th graders. So you need to assist your child here as much as possible so they don’t get frustrated.  Always let they attempt a skill on their own first, even if it’s not perfect- that’s okay! Just be ready if they need the help and ask- be accessable. As desired, cut any other interesting pieces you may want out of ads or newsprint. I also offered my students printed paper with patterns. This added depth and texture to their compositions.

4. Mix tempera paint to make skin tone and paint face.

Mixing paint to get the color you want is an important art skill for children to learn. But let’s move beyond primary and secondary colors. Making skin tones is actually very easy. You just have to experiment with amounts. See how to mix paint to make skin tones here.

Paint the entire face. Remind your child to leave the eyes white!

5. Glue the Newsprint and Outline with Permanent Marker

After they get the newspaper to be a good fit have them glue it for the headdress. I also allowed my students to cut pieces from ads and printed paper. Once dry enough, re-outline the features of the face with permanent black marker- my favorite to use with children are Black Sharpies. ( Fine or Regular) 

This is also the right time to add more sections in the outfit later to become ornate decoration.

6. Paint blank areas, add background with watercolor or marker and fill in all other blank spaces.

I told the children I wanted no white areas. So, I looked around to help them with whatever they needed to add. Once the body of the Egyptian was complete is was time to fill in the back ground. I suggested complementary colors or a contrasting color to  make their person “pop” out of the paper.

7. Add embellishment and final touches with Gold Acrylic Paint

This is where the real excitement bursted from my co-op students. They were so very happy with their creations! It made my day just to see how interested they were in learning! These were the final touches that made their projects complete! You can have your child add golden stripes to the headdress or elaborate golden jewelry or design to the collar.

Student Art Gallery of Ancient Egyptian Faces

Didn’t their work come out awesome?

Linked up with Trivium Tuesday.

Tell me…

What lesson on Egypt might you use this art lesson to compliment? What books are you using?

Art Around the Ancient World- the line up:

The following lists each lesson by civilization, what each lesson’s focus will be, and the media/project tutorial.

• Prehistory– Cave Paintings– Painting the Ancient Way
• Sumerians – Ancient Writing -Cylinder Seals in Clay
• Egyptians – Egyptian Art – Text as Texture/ Egyptian Headdress ( YOU ARE HERE)
• Assyrians and Babylonians -Near East Metalworking –  Babylonian Art Lesson for Kids
• Phoenicians– Ancient Dyes– Purple Batik Cloths
• Hittites and Ancient Israel– TBA
• Ancient Africa– Akuaba Wooden Doll– African Scratch Art
• Minoan and Mycenaean-Greek Mythology Masks-MinotaurPaper Mache Masks
• Persians– Persian Carpets and Decor- Paper Weaving Project
• Ancient China- Tangrams
• Ancient Greece– Pythagorus – Tessellating Jars
• India- Spice JarLayer Art
• Rome- Mosaics

The post Ancient Egypt Art Lesson #1: Text as Texture appeared first on Dymphna's Song.

Study Mondrian

Born in 1872, Piet Mondrian fascinates me as an artist. Perhaps at first glance you might say, “Well anyone can make that, it’s simple!”

At first glace you are right. That was the whole point! If you begin to dig deeper and think about this style with the eyes of an artist, you will begin to see more than first meets the eye and appreciate Mondiran’s style. It was called just that.. De Stijl, or “the style”. It’s also known as Neoplasticism. It was a movement in the Netherlands during WWI to produce pure form and color, reducing each object to it’s most pure and basic form. Most of Mondrian’s painting using this style were painted with only the primary colors, gray, and black.

 Appreciate His Work

Mondrian didn’t always paint in this style. His work evolved from impressionism to cubism, and then finally to the development of Neoplasticism. Before you start the lesson be sure to look at several pieces of his work and from various time periods. A fun exercise we did together as a class was looking at a picture with an artist’s eye and seeing the most basic forms. So an apple on a table might be a square on top a line, and so on. Another activity that I recall the children liking was just looking around the room for basic shapes and forms- kind of like an eye spy game.

Mondrian for Kids

 First, I had the children practice a design in De Stijl with simple crayon or marker and a straight edge. Then for lesson I brought together these materials: 

1. 1/4″  Black construction paper in strips 
2. White multimedia paper or paper plate for round base
3. Red, yellow, and blue tissue paper cut in a variety of different size squares and rectangles
4. Liquid starch
5. Craft brushes

Then I had them begin on their final project. They first arranged their composition and then began to use the starch to “paste” the shapes where they wanted them. 

One of the only things we had to be careful of was the possibility of the tissue breaking down too much and tearing. We found that it worked out best to put a bit of starch on the paper and then gently spread it over the top of the tissue after being placed. The same is true for the construction paper strips.

This was a very fun and fail proof project for the kids. And it was also a great way for them to practice getting an idea for their project before starting. *Note- The starch will make the paper curl a bit; but once dry you can easily flatten them under a few books.

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